Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi for his remarks in which he seemed to suggest that the RSS discriminated against women, BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain on Wednesday said that the Congress vice-president is “afraid” of the women leaders in the BJP.

Women are respected the most in the BJP and the party has maximum number of women legislators in Uttar Pradesh, he said reacting to the Congress leader's remarks suggesting that the BJP and the RSS discriminate against women.

"Rahul Gandhi will take time to understand the BJP and the RSS... he will have to do research for it," Hussain told newspersons here last night.

Addressing a gathering of students in Vadodara yesterday, Gandhi had said, "The BJP's thinking is that till women are silent they are good, when they start speaking up they try to shut them up."

"Their organisation is the RSS. How many women are there in the RSS... Have you ever seen any woman in 'shakhas' wearing shorts? I have never seen," he had said.

Hussain said the language used by the Congress leader was "unfortunate" and he had "crossed all limits", adding that Rahul Gandhi was out to realise the dream of Mahatma Gandhi "to finish" the Congress.

The Congress leader "is afraid of women leaders in the BJP", he claimed.

"Rahul gets afraid whenever the name of Smriti Irani crops up before him," the BJP spokesman said, referring to the Union minister who had taken on the Congress leader in Amethi in the last Lok Sabha election.

Claiming that the BJP will romp home victorious in 2019 and Narendra Modi will return to power, he said Congress leaders have no time left as they "are busy enjoying holidays and foreign trips".

On the Congress' charges against BJP president Amit Shah's son Jay Shah, he said that they are baseless and people will give a befitting reply soon.

He alleged that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress were, on the other hand, "neck deep in corruption".

He asserted that there was no need for any kind of probe into the allegations against Jay Shah and ruled out resignation of party chief Amit Shah, saying the issue is not relevant.

Claiming that the BJP will get two-third majority both in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, where assembly elections are due, Hussain said that the Congress is "extremely frustrated" over the state of affairs.

To a question as to whether the party will take action against Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, who have recently criticised the central government, he said the party respects both of them and they also need to respect the party.

Hussain was all praise for the Yogi Adityanath government, saying that it has taken rapid strides on the development front and had made the state crime-free within a short time.